Percy the Yankee
by clerrrrr
Summary: headcannon Universe Altered: Percy has a strong New York accent but hides it because when he was younger, he hated sticking out with his ADHD and dyslexia and his accent was one more thing that made him different. Slowly, he opens up to more people and hilarity ensues! [1: Grover, 2: Annabeth, 3: Clarisse, 4: Thalia, 5: Nico]
1. Grover

**Disclaimer: I own nothing, Uncle Rick rules this universe, if I ruled it BoO would have ended much differently.**

 **Chapter 1: Grover**

Grover and Percy had their first, awkward conversation on move in day as they stared at each other from across the room, the day before classes started at Yancy Academy. The first thing Grover learned was that Percy had a strong New York accent. Surprisingly, no one directly teased him about it because several other kids had one too. Nancy Bobofit's accent was lesser than Percy's, but she would tease him about the occasional word every once in a while, until he would bring up a word she never said right either and that would be that. Grover never realized Percy was self-conscious about it until sometime after the Mrs. Dodds incident, when the two friends were talking about their plans for the future. Grover said he wanted to travel the world and Percy informed him that he had never been out of the New York area.

"What, really? You've been to New Jersey, I hope."

"Of course I have! I just haven't been much farther than that is all," Percy responded, a bit embarrassed. "Plus, if I ever leave Manhattan, I want to hide my accent. Here I can blend in pretty well with everyone else from New York, but I don't like people having another reason to isolate me besides my ADHD and dyslexia."

Grover was taken aback with this revelation. "Are you able to speak with a west coast accent?"

Percy gave him a small grin. "Yeah, I can and I might start speaking this way wherever I end up next because I'll have a fresh start," he said, in a perfect west coast American accent. Grover's jaw dropped.

"You've been practicing! That was perfect!"

Percy laughed and gave a small bow.

* * *

After waking up enough to _almost_ hold onto his own glass, Percy and Grover finally got to talk again after Percy defeated the Minotaur. They started to walk towards Mr. D and Chiron and Percy informed Grover he would start hiding his accent from now on. Of course, Grover knew Chiron would be there and he had taught Percy for the last year and knew about his accent, but Grover doubted Chiron would say anything. It would be the last time Grover heard Percy's New York accent for quite a while.

 **AN: (Review please!) So I have this headcannon that Percy is actually self conscious about his accent and no one really knows about it. I hope I do justice for this idea. I was fascinated with this a few days ago but not many people have written about it, so I decided to take a stab at it. I'm trying to explain the deeper things behind Percy wanting to hide his accent because I have always felt that Percy has more layers than just the two we see in the books, and it will be in more detail next chapter with Annabeth.**


	2. Annabeth (pt 1)

**Side note: Chiron was underlined in red in the text editor and the top suggestion for it was Charon LOL**

* * *

 **Chapter 2: Annabeth**

Annabeth was there when Percy carried Grover to the Big House his first night at Camp Half-Blood.

"He's the one, he must be," she said, strong hope for a quest bubbling up in her for the first time in years.

"Silence, Annabeth. He's still conscious, bring him inside," Chiron ordered.

Annabeth situated the boy in the infirmary bed and fetched the pudding version of ambrosia and some nectar from the cabinet. Chiron dismissed her for the night, and told her to come back in the morning so she could watch him while Chiron taught his archery class. Annabeth was on the second round of feeding the boy (Percy, Chiron told her) and was laughing at the ambrosia all over his face, when she noticed his eyes open suddenly. His eyes were a brilliant green and when they met hers, she hated herself for getting lost in them momentarily. She had little time to ask him questions before he fell back asleep.

"What will happen at the summer solstice?" she asked Percy. _Come on,_ she thought, _you must know something,_ when he looked at her confused.

"What?" Percy replied, dazed. She looked over her shoulder, making sure no one was there. _Spill it!_ She thought.

"What's going on? What was stolen? We've only got a few weeks!"

"I'm sawry," he said, already falling back asleep. "I don'…"

Annabeth groaned in frustration, and at the knock on the door quickly filled his mouth with ambrosia. _Annoying Yankee,_ she thought.

* * *

After two days of taking care of Percy, Chiron informed Annabeth that Grover would take over. The next time Annabeth saw Percy was when he finally woke up, on the third day. She stood and listened to Chiron talking with Percy and was surprised to not hear the distinct New York accent she swore she heard the other days, both while he was awake and asleep. She shook her head, thinking he had just been super incoherent and slurred his words instead. He still looked uncertain on his feet but had a firm determination in his eyes to walk on his own, which Annabeth admired and then quickly berated herself for thinking it. To make up for it, Annabeth said the only thing she could think of after that embarrassing thought. "You drool when you sleep."

* * *

Annabeth quickly got over her thoughts on Percy when Chiron asked her to take over Percy's tour and Percy succeeded in embarrassing himself, and by extension, her, in every way possible. Annabeth was slightly glad he didn't have an accent after all, because that would just be more fuel to the embarrassment parade that was known as Percy Jackson.

After annoying her with his whiny questions and after the toilets incident with Clarisse, she was thoroughly fed up with Percy, but at least Annabeth had a plan now for Capture the Flag.

Annabeth and Percy were talking about the gods ( _Gods, when will he finally understand this stuff?_ ) when Percy asked how to get to Olympus. Annabeth decided he wasn't a pureblood New Yorker after she asked, "You _are_ a New Yorker, right?" and he responded: "Oh, sure," looking confused.

* * *

After Percy returned from Olympus, Annabeth quenched the overwhelming relieved feeling of seeing him alive, and a stray thought wondered how he had managed to get to Olympus if he wasn't a true New Yorker like he made it seem. It wasn't until Percy woke up from Luke's attempted murder and Chiron left for Olympus that Annabeth got the chance to ask him about his accent. Annabeth didn't feel like talking about any more depressing things that made her blood boil in anger.

"So, are you a true New Yorker or not?" she asked, to start things out. Percy looked at her, offended.

"Of course I am! What did you think I was?"

Annabeth dodged the question. "But do you have an accent?"

Percy's expression faltered. "Why would you think that?"

"I just thought I heard one when you talked in your sleep both at the beginning of summer and after this round of passing out."

Percy looked self-conscious, which Annabeth had only seen a few times. It was strange, because no matter how much he embarrassed himself, he never looked self-conscious, more just oblivious that he was making a fool of himself.

"Yeah, I do," he finally said. A few moments passed in silence.

"Then why do you hide it? Lots of people have more embarrassing things than an accent, and you sure like to embarrass yourself in everything else you do."

Percy laughed at that comment and Annabeth smiled.

"I dunno, I just promised myself that I would hide my accent after Yancy—I didn't want to give kids more reasons to isolate me. And even here, I'm still separated from everyone by my godly parent. Don't get me wrong, I'm grateful I've been claimed and everyone still includes me in stuff, but I'm still alone. I still stick out, even here, even with everyone else also having ADHD and dyslexia," he said quickly, like it had been bottled up for a while. He suddenly blanched at realizing what he just revealed and looked up at Annabeth with nervous eyes, "Please don't tell anyone. Only Grover and Chiron have heard my accent."

Annabeth stared at him and recognized how hard it must have been to reveal this. It didn't seem that big of a deal to Annabeth, but when she thought about it, she realized she knew everything about Percy: from Smelly Gabe to his habit of drooling in his sleep, and him about her: the trouble with her father and her dream of being an architect. They knew everything about each other, except Annabeth didn't know about his accent. Annabeth felt honored that he thought her such a close friend he would admit this to her. Looking back, Annabeth didn't deal with regular school for that long before she ran away. She was in first grade when she left the school system, and then when she got to camp, everyone was the same as her and she was immediately welcomed into the Athena cabin with open arms. She may have felt suffocated and trapped in camp for five years, but Percy didn't have it easy either. He had to deal with Gabe, who, she had a sneaking suspicion, was more than just rude to him and Sally, and he was a son of the Big Three, which meant more monsters and more weird things happening in his childhood. He was kicked out of every school he ever attended, and having ADHD and dyslexia around perfectly normal kids that got kicked out much less than him couldn't have helped Percy blend in.

Annabeth snapped out of her reverie. "Of course I won't tell, Seaweed Brain. We're friends."

He smiled, clearly relieved, and an understanding passed between them. They stood side by side at the railing and looked out at Thalia's pine tree.

"Just one more thing," she said, interrupting the silence. "I don't think you have any reason to be embarrassed about it. You shouldn't have to hide who you really are, even though an accent is only what you sound like and not your personality. You should find someone you trust, someone who you can talk regularly to; maybe one day you can drop your act."

Percy held her gaze, thinking about her words.

"Well, I give no promises on permanently 'dropping my act,' but if we are alone," he paused, "I will talk to you regularly. Stawting now." They smiled at each other, Annabeth not hiding her excitement that she would hear Percy's accent from now on.

Annabeth then changed the subject, not wanting to make Percy more uncomfortable than she already had, asking what he would do for the school year. He told her about Chiron wanting him to stay, but he wanted to live with is mom for the year in the city. Annabeth was only half paying attention to what he was saying, as she was so caught up in the cadence of his genuine voice and the way he pronounced some of his vowels and r's. He was definitely a born and raised New Yorker, Annabeth decided.

Percy and Annabeth said their goodbyes for the summer, and as Annabeth touched Thalia's tree for the last time for a while, she looked back at her best friend (who was _so_ much like Thalia), standing on the porch, wondering if he had any other secrets she might one day learn.

* * *

 **So that was Annabeth's first chapter! I basically have the whole story planned out, but wanted to see if anyone could figure out a way for Thalia to learn sometime during the Titan's curse? I'm trying to keep the chapters in sequential order. Here are three of my ideas:**

 **A.) Maybe in the car ride to school, Thalia learns of Percy's accent and then Nico hears his accent (since Percy is around Annabeth, Thalia, and Grover who all know about his accent) and that was one of the things Nico crushed on, but I can't figure out a way to make it work since Nico at age 10 obviously would tell the whole camp about Percy's accent. (but if I didn't do this one, I could do a funny chapter during the Son of Neptune related to Nico learning about the accent)**

 **OR B.) Maybe during the battle with Atlas, Percy gets so tired he just drops his cover? And since Zoe is dying, Artemis wouldn't say anything, and Grover and Annabeth are there Percy wouldn't care? And that is when Thalia learns? (like on Artemis' chariot)**

 **OR C.) Thalia learns when Percy discovers she's afraid of heights? Sort of a trade of embarrassing truths?**

 **Let me know which one you guys think, and feel free to suggest certain ways to do it! I am leaning towards C right now. I just think I could put a lot of sass between the two in that scene. (Percy: A daughter of Zeus scared of heights? Thalia: A proud New Yorker embarrassed of his accent?)**

 **REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW (::) (::) (::)**


	3. Clarisse

**NOTE: Changed username from SkatingWithDragons to clerrrrr.**

 **Thank you so much for everyone who reviewed (sparklehannah, OKIdon'tknowaName, Hippi bookworm x2, Sherlock's 2nd Blogger, Helix King of reality, and some fucking random guy), followed, and favorited this story! It means a lot to me :)**

* * *

 **Chapter 3: Clarisse**

Clarisse's favorite time of the year was summer. Being one of the few year-round campers, all of the year-rounders got sick of each other by February. In summer, she could enjoy the company of (read: pick on) a whole host of new campers, both the newbies and the returning ones. Her favorite, of course, was Percy Jackson, but they reached a new understanding after Clarisse's quest and so Clarisse sadly didn't pick on him as much anymore.

Summer was coming to an end and Clarisse was taking advantage of every camper to spar with before they left for home. She just finished winning (read: pummeling and humiliating) against Michael Yew and decided to stop by the showers before dinner. As she walked past the Apollo cabin, she heard a guy and a girl talking behind it. This wouldn't have ordinarily been such a big deal if Clarisse could place the male's voice, which she couldn't. She knew Annabeth was there, talking with the male. He had a strong New York accent, and Clarisse only knew a few girls at camp with a Boston accent. No New Yorkers. Clarisse prided herself on being able to recognize every camper by their voice alone, and this suspicious male sounded new, which didn't make sense. Due to the effective gossip grapevine at camp, it was guaranteed that the whole camp knew of a new demigod within five minutes of crossing the border, and Clarisse had heard nothing in the last ten minutes of walking towards the showers and passing several fellow campers. Clarisse heard Annabeth and the male arguing, but still could not place the male's (secretly, she was a Percabeth shipper and wondered idly if Annabeth had a new interest and the ship was sinking). Always the warrior and prepared for anything, Clarisse slowed her pace and adjusted her grip on Maimer, deciding to check on Annabeth (who she secretly thought of like a younger sister). She saw Annabeth facing her, leaning against the wall talking with someone whose back was to Clarisse. He wore an orange camp shirt and clearly wore a camp necklace, so he wasn't new.

"No, Percy! I am not going to write my father! He made it very clear that I still wasn't welcome there," Annabeth exclaimed.

"Annabeth, I'm not saying you should forgive him and try living there again, but just send him the occasional letter, it doesn't have to be long, just let him know you're alive—" the male said. _Percy_ Jackson, Clarisse thought, shocked. _Why does he sound like that?_

"Let me think on it," Annabeth interrupted, her gray eyes steely. Clarisse knew as well as Percy that the argument was over when Annabeth got like that. Percy sighed in defeat, _Why has neither of them noticed me standing here, yet?_ , and then said: "Alright, I'm gonna say hi to Blackjack. See you at dinner?"

Annabeth nodded. Clarisse was so caught up in her thoughts and the fact that Percy had been speaking in a perfect New York accent that couldn't be faked and yet she had never heard it in the two years she knew him and realized too late that she hadn't moved and Percy was going to _crash into her right now_ and _oh shit._ Clarisse had known for years about Annabeth's daddy issues. They bonded over shared mortal parent problems years ago and ranted to each other when they needed to blow off steam every few months. But what was up with Percy?

Percy finally ( _finally_ ) noticed Clarisse who was staring wide-eyed at him, still gripping Maimer, and his face paled. His mouth opened and closed a couple times ( _like a fish,_ Clarisse chuckled inwardly) before regathering his wits and saying, "Hey, Clarisse. What's up?" with no trace of an accent, just the voice Clarisse had been hearing for the past two years.

Annabeth watched the two like a tennis match, waiting for Clarisse's response to Percy's serve. Clarisse raised an accusing eyebrow, "Was that an _accent_ I heard, Prissy?"

Percy started stuttering out lame explanations for Clarisse hearing him wrong while Clarisse narrowed her eyes, letting him know she doubted every word. "Stop denying it. I know I heard one and I know you grew up in Manhattan. Why do you hide your accent at camp?"

Percy sighed in defeat (again, guess he just couldn't win against a girl today apparently).

"I didn't want to stick out more than I already did by adding in my accent," he finally said. "Annabeth and I made a deal that I wouldn't hide my accent around just her last summer."

Annabeth shifted on her feet uneasily, clearly guilty that she had gotten Percy caught.

Clarisse just shrugged. "That's cool, Jackson. We all have our secrets. I still owe you one—without you I would still be rotting in Polyphemus' cave."

Percy looked relieved. "Thanks," he said, "I suppose we can call it even now if you don't tell anyone about my accent?"

"Sure thing," Clarisse agreed. "I just want to hear you say 'forget about it' and then we'll call it even. Twice."

"Are you serious? I can't believe you just asked me to say that!"

Clarisse smirked and adjusted her grip on Maimer.

"Come on, Percy. I don't think I've even heard you say it yet," Annabeth pleaded.

He rolled his eyes and huffed exasperatedly. "Fine. Fuhgeddaboudit."

Annabeth kept a straight face but her eye twitched, trying to keep in her mirth. Clarisse, however, had no qualms whatsoever about laughing. "I love it!" she roared. "I should start saying that too! Wait-wait-wait one more time, that was our deal," Clarisse said, recovering and brandishing her spear to make sure Percy followed through with it.

"Fuhgeddaboudit."

Clarisse laughed again and bent over double for a few seconds (Annabeth used her hand to cover her small smile), before straightening and addressing Percy.

"Okay-okay, in all seriousness, your accent is awesome. I don't know why you hide it. And my lips are sealed. You have nothing to worry about, Jackson. I just might ask you to say that word occasionally."

Percy allowed himself a chuckle. "Sounds good, Clarisse—and thank you," he said sincerely. "Wait, why are you being so nice to me today?"

"Call it being hit on the head one too many times and withdrawals from not being able to shove your head down the toilets," Clarisse retorted.

She then smiled, waved, and continued heading towards the showers. "See ya Miss Princess, Prissy!" she shouted over her shoulder. _Huh, I guess the Percabeth ship is stronger than we all thought,_ Clarisse mused with a grin.

* * *

 **I think Clarisse actually has a lot of secrets that she just keeps hidden because if people knew, they wouldn't think she was so intimidating anymore. I had so much fun writing this chapter! Is Clarisse a little ooc? She seemed like it to me, so that's why I added that last line of Clarisse's to make her more tough again.**

 **If I get 5 reviews on this chapter, I will upload chapter 4 by this time next week, perhaps a little earlier!**

 **I am getting my wisdom teeth out Thursday, so if anyone has any advice it would be much appreciated! I've got two top and one bottom that's partially impacted. Foods to eat/avoid? Certain things to help with swelling? Pain? Boredom? (haha I'll write to get rid of the boredom) Let me know though!**

 **For my fellow Americans, Happy Independence Day! (although I've also never been so embarrassed to be an American before, but at least the fireworks were pretty)**

 **~SkatingWithDragons**

 **V**

 **V**

 **V**

 **REVIEW**


	4. Thalia

**Thank you to Guest, sparklehannah, Katlover98, Percabeth824, AnnaUnicorn, sickasfrick4578, and GamerV for reviewing! Your support means a lot to me. :')**

 **The underlined dialogue is taken directly from the Titan's Curse, pages 173 and 201-202 of the Disney Hyperion 2008 edition. Enjoy!**

* * *

 **Chapter 4: Thalia**

Vibrant green eyes and hair as dark as hers were the first thing Thalia saw when she woke up after six years of being a pine tree. Flash forward five months to Thalia considering Percy a friend, but a dam annoying one. When pressured, Percy was serious and could connect the dots faster than Thalia expected, but when not about to die, Percy's nickname from Annabeth aptly suit him.

Thalia retrieved Aegis then stood next to Percy, and the two watched the boar struggling in the snowbank in front of them.

"You're afraid of heights," he stated.

"Don't be stupid."

"That explains why you freaked out on Apollo's bus. Why you didn't want to talk about it."

"If you tell anyone, I swear—" she threatened, turning to face him.

"No, no," Percy said. "That's cool. It's just… the daughter of Zeus, the Lord of the Sky, afraid of heights?"

Thalia's rage grew and she developed a plan on how she wanted to pummel the kelp head into the snow and fry him with that stupid half smirk on his face.

Percy recognized Thalia's expression and quickly said, "Woah—I don't think you'll want to do that. How about a trade while we wait for the others to find us?" Percy spread his hands palms up in front of him. "I'll tell you my deepest, darkest secret if it makes you feel better, because quite frankly I'm sick of being struck by lightning this week, and you'll promise not to fry me. We'll be even." He looked into Thalia's angry blue eyes and waited anxiously for her answer.

Thalia rolled her eyes in exasperation. "Yeah, right. I already know your secrets. You're only on this quest for Annabeth who you like as more than just a friend and I've seen the scars on your back that aren't from the monsters."

Percy paused for a moment in shock. His face turned a light shade of pink while a pained expression flashed over his features from the conflicting parts of that statement; obviously he didn't realize Thalia knew those things. When he opened his mouth next to argue, Thalia thought perhaps she bumped her head harder on the way down than she originally thought and impaired her hearing. "Well, I definitely didn't expect that but neither of those was my super-secret secret. And also I don't like Annabeth _that_ way." He then smiled that troublemaker's smirk Thalia knew Annabeth had a soft spot for but mostly it just made Thalia angry.

"Sorry, what did you just say?" Thalia asked him. She could blame her sudden hardness of hearing on the pine tree that got its needles stuck in her hair (which she was sure Percy would bring up later, calling it her long-lost cousin or something).

"I said, 'I definitely didn't expect that but neither of those was my super-secret secret. And also I don't like Annabeth in _that_ way.'" He watched Thalia closely as she tried to figure out what she heard. It wasn't the words Percy said. No, those she understood just fine—it was the way the words were entering her brain. He spoke upon seeing the confusion on her face and Thalia's ears were still malfunctioning, apparently.

"You know I grew up in Manhattan. Did you really think that you didn't have a weird accent growing up in California? The West coast accent is just. So. S _low._ And your vowels sound lazy, too."

At that last jab, Thalia's eyes grew large in understanding and she started laughing, the last dredges of residual fear receding. " _I'm_ not the one with the accent, that's all you Kelp Head. The rest of America sounds like this," she gestured to herself.

Percy laughed too at their playful banter. "Come on, we should let the others know we're alive," he said, turning in the other direction. "And you can't tell anyone about this because I know your darkest secret now, too," he reminded her, raising a finger.

Thalia sobered up, still upset that one of the rare times Percy was wise he found out her greatest fear, but it was made better with her new knowledge of his accent. She didn't know Percy's full history after all. He probably had good reasons and unfortunate childhood experiences which forced him to hide it, even if fellow campers would have accepted this quirk of his with open arms.

Above the pair, Grover's voice echoed down the canyon, "Helloooooo?"

"Down here!" Percy shouted back, reverting to his covered voice. Thalia was both grateful and bummed. Grateful that she no longer had to have this emotional, embarrassing conversation and could now focus on the quest but bummed because when they weren't arguing, Thalia actually enjoyed Percy's company.

* * *

The desert spread out far and barren as the eye could see, and a river cut through it.

"There's a path. We could get to the river." Grover said, looking at a narrow ledge.

Percy looked towards the canyon. "That's a goat path."

"So?"

"The rest of us aren't goats."

"We can make it, I think."

Thalia stayed in the back of the group as they were debating their next move, and began turning pale at the thought of clinging to a goat path on the side of a steep cliff with a harsh river at the bottom.

"No, I, uh, think we should go farther upstream."

"But—"

"Come on, a walk won't hurt us." Percy looked over to her, and Thalia's shoulders relaxed and her face expressed gratitude.

They walked about half a mile, found some canoes, and began preparing them for travel.

Thalia felt the need to truly thank Percy and approached him when they were getting the oars, letting Zoë and Grover push the canoes towards the river and organized their supplies inside.

"Thanks for back there."

"Don't mention it."

"Can you really…you know."

Percy thought about it and dropped his fake accent. "I think so. Usually I'm good with water." Thalia felt touched that Percy would feel comfortable enough to not hide his accent around her.

"Would you take Zoë? I think, ah, maybe you can talk to her." Thalia said.

"She's not going to like that." Thalia and Grover, too, had also noticed the obvious dislike Zoë possessed for Percy.

"Please? I don't know if I can stand being in the same boat with her. She's…she's starting to worry me." Zoë had been beating herself up for Bianca's death nonstop on the car ride when it was just the two of them. Thalia hoped that Percy could help ease her anguish and get her to focus on the quest, perhaps even getting Zoë's hatred towards Percy to fade enough for cooperation. After all, Thalia had been told the story of when Annabeth agreed to work with Percy when on their first quest. Thalia knew that if he could handle Annabeth, then he could handle this ancient, stubborn warrior also.

Percy finally nodded, and Thalia sighed in relief. "I owe you one."

"Two."

"One and a half," she compromised, smiling. Maybe, just maybe, she would consider Percy her second little brother in the near future, and she suspected Percy felt the same way after he dropped his fake accent for the second time around her. After all, they certainly fought enough to make it to sibling status.

* * *

 **Yeah after that line break nothing else was really accent related, but I like that scene between Thalia and Percy and wanted to explore it a bit more.**

 **I realized that Thalia's debts to Percy were talking about something else than I thought when originally planning the chapter, so it took a different turn than I expected but I'm happy with it. Let me know what you think! Should Percy have any other deep dark secrets? What do you think Thalia should have said there instead of the Annabeth/Gabe statement?**

 **Who else should I do? Nico is up next, I will be expanding the birthday party scene at the end of the BotL. Then plans include the 7 and Reyna.**

 **V**

 **V**

 **V**

 **REVIEW =D (10 of them to get a chapter by Sunday)**


End file.
